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By Bollywood Hungama -

May 24, 2003 - 12:00 AM IST

VENUS TIPS FIGHT IT OUT Venus and Tips are embroiled in a controversy. Venus and Baweja Films, makers of QAYAMAT, held a press conference "in view of the blatant imitation of the music cassettes and promos of the film QAYAMAT CITY UNDER THREAT by Tips." While the music rights of QAYAMAT CITY UNDER THREAT vests with Venus, Tips has produced a cassette titled QAYAMAT LOVE UNDER THREAT, which has the same look, background and the face of Ajay Devgan on cover, like the film's cassette. The spokesperson for Venus, Champak Jain, and Harry Baweja showed samples of the copies of both the cassettes to the press to create awareness "about the unethical practice adopted by Tips." Here's the official statement issued by Champak Jain of Venus: "When we saw the Tips' promo on the satellite channels, I spoke to Harry Baweja, who in turn spoke to Ramesh Taurani of Tips. Ramesh Taurani confirmed to stop the telecast of the promo on all the channels and also assured that he will not release the material in the market. "Despite this clear talk, Tips has released the material and proved that it's being done purposely, so that the original music company suffers a loss." And here's the official statement issued by Harry Baweja: "Tips has wronged me. We have heard of music piracy where 'no label cassettes' are available of fast selling films' titles. But here we have Tips or Taurani brothers openly holding the entertainment industry to ransom by jungle law. "My songs, 'Woh Ladki Bahut Yaad Aati Hai' and 'Chura Liya', are a rage. So if you observe the Tips' cassette, it has five songs with 'Ladki' in the catalogue and two with 'Churao Na Dil'. The intention is clear to mislead. In no way is it a case of coincidence. It is purely planned, schemed, designed to mislead the public. That too by a public limited company! "This stock in the market is going to make a dent in the sales of QAYAMAT. It is going to harm our credibility, when listeners realize that we have put old songs in our new film. It's going to harm our film-going audience, who will lose trust in us. "The TV promos, running on satellite channels, show Ajay Devgan, Urmila Matondkar, Mahima Chaudhary, Abhishek Bachchan and others then the title QAYAMAT appears. This has and will further confuse the audience as to who all are in the film and why old songs are repeated in the new film. "Ramesh Taurani is the Vice-President of A.M.P.T.P.P., the producers' association, which is there to protect the interest of the producers. Why is Ramesh Taurani destroying the healthy ambience of brotherhood amongst the producers? "I will fight this case through my Association, but that could be time taking, by which time a lot of harm could be done." When this writer called Kumar Taurani to hear his side of the story, this is what he had to say: "Harry Baweja is looking for some fokat publicity. Since the time the music of CHALTE CHALTE and MAIN PREM KI DIWANI HOON has surfaced in the market, the audio sales of his film QAYAMAT have dropped drastically. So what better way to get publicity than by calling a press conference? "We at Tips have come out with a compilation album and Harry is making a mountain out of a mole hill. This is such a minor issue. He doesn't have a copyright on the title QAYAMAT, nor does he have a copyright on Ajay Devgan's pics. "If you look at both the albums carefully, the look of Ajay Devgan in his film is very different from the pic of Ajay we've used in our cassette. We've used a 5-year-old pic of Ajay's, so what is he objecting to? "If Harry had a problem, why didn't he call me to sort out matters? He called Ramesh [Taurani], knowing fully well that Ramesh looks after the production wing of Tips, while I handle the music division. And soon after he makes a call to Ramesh, he announces a press conference against us! Is it done? Agar do bhai aapas mein ladte hain, to baharwalo [press] ko nahin bulana chahiye. "Venus should be the last people to complain about the issue. When we came out with a Jazzy B album some time back, they [Venus] used a pic of Jazzy from our album and released an old album of his. We wrote three letters to Venus and even to I.M.I., but nothing came out of it. But we didn't go crying to the world by holding press conferences. "Both Ganesh and Champak Jain are good friends and had they called me up, I would've withdrawn my cassette immediately. Instead, they decided to go to the press. But Ganesh called me yesterday and requested me to withdraw the album and we've done so. From our end, the matter has ended."